Just wanted to share a bit of Thanksgiving Day cheer, brought to you by my adorable son Tyler...

How can you not enjoy the holidays with cuteness like this to make you smile!!!!

Here's hoping your Turkey Day was as enjoable as mine!

Black Friday... need I say more?

Ok, am I the only one that thinks this day is greatly over-rated? The I BEST SHOPPING DAY OF THE YEAR!!!! I think not. There is nothing that can make me get up at the ungodly hour of 4 AM to push my way through the front door of a store to buy dodads that are super bargain basement cheap.... So I thought.

Flipping through the sales flyers on Thursday morning... I start saying to myself, hmmm this is a good deal, oooh I really need one of those AND its on sale... NICE I found one of those and its super cheap.... you get my point. I make myself a game plan, I am going to Walmart to get X,Y,Z, then I'm heading over to KMart because they open later and I can get A,B,C. Its doable, I'm game.

Now fast forward to Thanksgiving evening, when we head over to my uncle's house for some dessert. Well dessert turned into lets play guyavita (a colombian dice game), then ooh how about we karoake for a little bit... and a few drinks here and a few drinks there. Its not 11 pm and I NEED TO GET UP AT 4AM!!!! Ok, so we all decide its time to go... we head on home, I get the kiddies ready for bed, my hubby crashes, and I can't sleep! WTF! I finally get to sleep and theres the alarm.

Well I had set my alarm for 4:30am on Friday morning, get up get dressed and head out to the stores... yes, I know, I'm a hypocrite. What can I do, I love myself a good deal. So my dedicated self gets out of bed, dressed and into my car at the ungodly hour of 4:55am, off to Walmart I go. Now on the way, I'm thinking to myself, I must be the only person crazy enough to head out at this time of the morning... BUT this is what I find as I approach Walmart.....

Oh, but wait... there's more.....

Yup... this is the scene at 5 AM at Walmart... there isn't a parking spot in sight! I take a little consolation in the fact that I am not the only psycho shopper out there that will get up at this hour to save a buck.

But I was able to get the things I was looking for, including a pretty good deal on a DL lite for Isabel for christmas... Nice, I'm ahead of the game now. I usually don't start, or do any, of my christmas shopping until Christmas Eve.

Well.. I'm in and out in 45 minutes. The longest part was the wait at the stupid register. NOW I remember why I don't like shopping on this day! grrrr....

So I head on over to Kmart. Nice its still early I can get in and out without losing anymore sleep, and head on home to cuddle all nice and warm in bed with my hubby.

I THINK NOT.....

This is the scene as I pulled up to the Kmart parking lot, yes that is the line to get into the store which has not opened yet... and it continues the length of the building, I'd say there was at least 200 people waiting to get in. ANOTHER reason that I had forgotten as to why I don't like this day!!!!!

BUT I got my coffee maker, $9.99... can't beat that.

So here's my contribution to stablizing the economy.

and so it begins...

Since it always seems to me that no one is paying attention to me and I feel like I am constantly rambling on to myself... I figured I would start this blog to share with anyone that will listen the things that interest me.

I find myself drawn to blogs that let me satisfy the voyeuer in all of us, and decided why the hell should I not share a little bit of me with those that let me into their lives? So here goes...

Ok, so for starters... my husband's birthday is this monday December 1st and I haven't a clue what to do! I am the world's worst gift buyer, gift idea comerupper (is this a word?), well to sum it up, I suck at giving gifts and coming up with surprise ideas that actually work. AND to make matters worse he will be working all day and then going to his classes afterwards which makes the "party" time a nice 9pm on a Monday night! grrrr! But I am not thwarted so easily, I have decided that since we are newly weds, and I want to be a good and loving wife, that I am going to throw him a little surprise party, attended by my kids and my family, I am going to bake him a cake... from scratch no less, AND I will do this all after getting out of work on Monday! The more I think about it, I think I'm a few short of a dozen in thinking that this is a good idea, BUT I have made the invites so no turning back now.

Ok, so here is the game plan, I am baking him a Red Velvet cake with butter cream frosting... all home made from scratch (no boxed crap for me!), the kids are making up a banner and we are all hiding under the dining room table and jumping out to say "SURPRISE!!!" when he gets home. The under the table part is cleverly suggested by my 5 yo Ty, who for some reason does not see the logistical problem in fitting himself, his 9 yo sis, his mamia (grandmother), his papa (grandfather), his titi (aunt) and myself under my table.... uh huh... don't think this is gonna happen.

But anyways... I made a trial run with the Red Velvet cake, since for starters I have no idea if my hubby will like Red Velvet cake... but I DO so why wouldn't he?? So I made enough batter to make a batch of cupcakes, and I made up enough butter cream frosting for the cupcakes and the cake (I apparently did not divide the recipe) and came up with these lovely concoctions...

WELL let me tell you... they are a hit. EVERYONE loved them, and as of 8:05 AM I had exactly one cupcake left, because I intentionally hid it so I could try one! Not too shabby if you ask me... So the concensus is RED VELVET CAKE with BUTTERCREAM Frosting. And since we can't just have cake... and my man loves his seafood... I am making some Seafood Alfredo just for my birthday boy. I'm such a good woman. Seriously, I really am!

So wish me luck, and that all parties involved cooperate and that Monday comes together without a hitch. please?!

Did anyone listen? Did anyone care?

Well that's all for now...